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Monday, September 17, 2012

One of our favorite read alouds from last year was the Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss. My children loved this book!

I read the unabridged version and it took some time to make our way through the book, but it was worth it.

And hearing about the awesome tree house ( named Falconhurst) that's mentioned in the book made the children want one of their own. They mentioned it to their dad and the planning began.

Thankfully, we have a small patch of woods on our property, and in that patch of woods is the perfect sycamore tree for tree house.

My boys helped their dad every evening after he got home from work. It took several weeks to build it, and the best part is that it cost very little because my hubby's boss gave him most of the lumber that was left over from jobs; lumber that would have eventually ended up getting thrown away.

Here are some photos of the whole process...

Building the deck of the tree house..

The "bridge" that leads from the platform of the rope swing (pictured below) ...

Hubby put in this 40-ft. rope swing a few years ago...

The kids like to do this trick and give me a heart attack lol..

Ok, back to the tree house..the decking for the bridge leading to the tree house..

All of the supporting posts were cedars taken from our woods. Hubby wanted to give it a rustic look. :)

Handrails on the bridge...

More of the rustic look....pickets are made of cedar branches. :)

Bridge to the tree house is finished..

Deck of the tree house. I love the way hubby built it around the trees. And this fall, it will be carpeted with red oak leaves and yellow sycamore leaves. :)

To get down from the tree house, my hubby cut the top off a dead cedar tree and attached it to the tree house as a ladder..

Next, he decided that we needed a crow's nest. But from the tree house to crow's nest (14 feet high), we needed another bridge..

Looking up at the crow's nest from the ground...

Now for handrails and pickets..

The bridge and crow's nest are finished!

Looking up at the finished product..

And last, but certainly not least, hubby wanted a spot for us to sit and watch the children play. So he used cedar to posts to hang this swing on. This swing is very special to us. It's the porch swing that belonged to my beloved father-in-law. He used to love to watch the children play when he came to visit. Now we sit and watch them on his swing.

So there you have it - our very own Falconhurst. I need to be careful about what I read to my children. You just never know what they're going to ask for. ;)

"....to love their husbands, love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed." Titus 2: 4~5

"Her children rise up and call her blessed.." - Proverbs 31:28

"I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England." - John Wesley

" To be a mother is by no means second class. Men may have the authority, but the women have the influence. The mother, more than the father, is the one who molds and shapes these little lives from day one. " - John MacArthur

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." - Abraham Lincoln

The days are long, but the years are short.

"Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality." - Beatrix Potter

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"Every true wife makes herhusband's interests her own.While he lives for her, carryingher image in his heart and toilingfor her all the days, she thinksonly of what will do him good.When burdens press upon him,she tries to lighten them bysympathy, by cheer, by theinspiration of love. She enterswith zest and enthusiasm intoall his plans. She is never aweight to drag him down, she ishis strength in his heart tohelp him ever to do noblerand better things." - J.R. Miller